I've Never Seen the Sun
by Alisia Vi Roberto
Summary: Amabel Ballantynn has been reaped for the 35th Hunger Games. In her home of District 8, she has never seen the sun before. WARNING: Character deaths (obviously...), and rating might change eventually, depending on what i do with this.


**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE HUNGER GAMES. MOST CHARACTERS ARE ORIGINAL.**

**ENJOY:)**

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I've never seen the sun before.

The smog blocks all of the light, so it always looks to be extremely early morning.

I'm so tired… I've been working all day long… but I'm almost done. Just four more hours… then I can go home. Home…

I cough, earning glares from the people around me, as if to say, "Shut UP, you idiot!"

I look down, embarrassed at my sudden outburst. The peacekeepers are watching me closely, like always. I can feel their cold gazes and their grips tightening on their guns. I clench my fists. _Stop trying to scare me and just do it, you cowards. _

I think I'm coming down with something... the smog doesn't usually get to me like this. I let out another loud cough, not being able to hold it in.

More glares from the surrounding people.

Oh god, just let me live through today... Tomorrow I won't have to work or anything. Just go to the reaping, then go home. Spend time with my family... Sounds so nice...

But I have to finish today's workload.

I chose to work an extra six hours today so that I could get some extra pay. I thought maybe if I got a little more money, I'd be able to afford a treat for my sister.

Tomorrow is her very first reaping.

I don't want Seraphina to be scared, but she typically has a positive outlook on the world... God only knows how in this damned district.

My hands are aching from all the sewing. Everyone in my district over the age of forty has awful arthritis in their hands. I'm sure I will someday be no exception.

I wince as I prick my finger for perhaps the thousandth time today. My fingers have become polka-dotted with tiny red cuts from the needles.

I look up at the huge digital clock on the wall behind the peacekeepers. Only one more hour...

I continue to sew even as my aching fingers scream for mercy.

Although I am surrounded by people just like me, working for a tiny amount of money per day, just to get little scraps of food on the table at home, I feel so alone. I know it's crazy, but I somehow feel different from everyone... but I know it's not true. It couldn't be. Everybody is the same, any idiot knows that.

We've always been encouraged to think of everyone around us as the same. We are better than no one, says the capital. The sickest part? They smile as they tell us we are no better than the dirt on the bottoms of their shoes.

I've heard of this place called "The Capital" and it sounds incredible. I've only heard stories, but supposedly they have several showers in every house. I haven't even seen one before... but they look wonderful on television. Everyone in my district just uses a big tin tub to bathe in.

I allow my mind to wander to places far away.

It's always hard to do this, because I can't imagine what it must be like to be somewhere without smog clogging your eyes, filling your nose, and blocking your throat. But it's nice to pretend that the air I live in is clean.

I have to hold my breath to keep myself from coughing again.

The room is uncomfortably silent. All I can hear is the constant wir of sewing machines and the tapping of feet on the ground. It echoes in the room, in my body, and throughout the bodies of every single person. The echo makes me want to scream, just to fill the silence. I never would, of course. That would cost me my life.

Suddenly, the bell goes off, freeing us from our duties.

I'm always the first one out the door, which is probably why the peacekeepers hate me so much.

Outside, the sky is black. No stars are seen, they never are. I quickly walk home, in the light of streetlamps every thirty yards or so.

I pass the housing blocks, huge stone buildings where each family has a small apartment to live in. I'm in Block B, Apartment 114. Each block has 200 apartments in it.

I rush past Block A and enter Block B. I nod quickly at the peacekeepers guarding the entrance, then look down and rush through the halls to the door that says 114.

Practically the moment I step inside I pass out from exhaustion.


End file.
